Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of using the ClearView filter in DxO’s Optics Pro to reduce various kinds of contrast-lowering issues in images. That includes not just haze and fog, but smoke, and even scattered light. Until now, ClearView has had a unique spot in my tool arsenal. But today, Adobe introduced a Dehazing feature in Photoshop 2015, as part of its Creative Cloud 2015 roll out. You can read my overall take on the new features on Extremetech, but I also want to give you an early deep dive into one of the interesting new features in Photoshop by comparing Adobe’s new Dehaze filter with DxO’s ClearView on one of my favorite sample images:

My favorite test image for dehazing is one I took last year on the Serengeti. It combines classic haze removal with some very tricky areas in the foreground where the texture of the trees in the fog can lead to a halo effect:

Here is the sample image before any haze removal is applied. Now we’ll use ClearView on it.

Setting ClearView to 26 does an excellent job of cutting through much of the atmosphere, while leaving the foliage looking natural,
but if you want to push your luck and draw out the detail in the middle ground, you get the following image:

This image has had enough of DxO’s ClearView applied to give us plenty of contrast, and make the middle ground pop, but we start to see haloes around the tree and the bushes in the near ground.

The following image uses Photoshop’s (also available in Lightroom) new Dehazing feature (you can find it at the top of the “fx” tab in Camera Raw, or in the Develop module of Lightroom. I cranked it up all the way (to 100) to see if I could fully clean up the haze in the middle ground. I couldn’t quite. The result, though, is for the most part quite pleasing. However, the sky color is not as natural as with DxO’s ClearView. It looks like which tool is better may be dependent on subject matter, and both tools may benefit from some gradient or other masks after being applied, so that any artifacts are suppressed.

We’ll be writing plenty more about the new tools in Creative Cloud 2015, including this one, as we get to spend more time with them. In the meantime, you can download the new tools for yourself at adobe.com.

1 Comment

Don't have DxO Clearview installed to compare, but I had just recenly looked at some images sinimlar to your sample taken in Rwanda last year that were hazy. Tried the new LR CC slider - it certainly helps. But, it surely pushes the blues to an unnatural look. Playing with Saturation helped a bit - taking it down in the far hills - and adjusting the Hue in the sky. Better be an image worth fussing with!!

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